35 thoughts on “December 2, 2019: Into The Sea”

  4. I have a techie issue I'm trying to resolve. Twice this weekend the wife and I tried to watch Catch-22 on Hulu. The first time we gave up because the video stream was so jittery and jumpy it gave us headaches. The second time we only got a couple of minutes in when the stream just froze and we got a fail message. The TV is a Vizio smart model, about 2 or 3 years old, that is hardwired with ethernet cable to the cable modem/wireless router, and we are using the pre-installed Hulu app. As a test, I got onto Hulu on my laptop using just a wireless connection and had no issues whatsoever - no stutters, no freezes. I'm wondering if I need to update the firmware and Hulu app on the TV. Has anybody else run into issues like this, and if so what was the solution?

      1. And I thought there was a similar Netflix not supporting old Rokus story going around, as well.

      2. Hmmm. We have the E55-C1 model, first manufactured in 2015 and I think we bought it 3 years ago. We've used the Hulu app on it before with no issues (Handmaid's Tale, Brockmire, Letterkenny). According to the Vizio support site, it gets automatic firmware updates as long as it is connected to the internet (but I'll check that just to confirm we have the latest version). I suppose I can use the laptop and Chromecast as a workaround, but that's not the optimal user experience. Better than getting headaches from watching TV, though.

        1. Chromecast was an option I was going to suggest, although as a fallback. For the heck of it, you might try removing ethernet cable and try wireless-only just to see if it has any effect.

        2. Hmm, I'd see if there's a manual update for the software even though it says it auto updates.

          Perhaps your router settings can be tweaked on a device-by-device basis.

          otherwise /ascii shrug

          1. Nope, I'm screwed. The Vizio VIA and VIA Plus TVs used the Yahoo apps store. Subsequent models use a completely different, cloud-based system for apps. It makes things easier for developers and users who have those TVs, but those of us with with the VIA (Vizio internet applications) systems are up the proverbial creek. There's no way to update the app even if Hulu has an updated version because the delivery mechanism for these models (Yahoo) is no longer supported by Vizio. There's also no way to do a manual update that I've been able to find. I'm stuck with whatever apps in whatever version that shipped with the TV. But I did get the Chromecast workaround set up and we watched episode one of Catch-22 tonight. Which somehow feels very apropos.

                1. Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-5 are two of my favorite books spawned by WWII, but the movie versions were disappointments. Non-linear stories can be difficult to translate to film sometimes.

              2. No, this is the limited series that George Clooney produced, it dropped back in May, I think. We just watched the first episode and it was pretty good.

                1. No, I was asking about the miniseries. Like I said, I thought the movie was so bad that I barely made it through a few scenes. I don't know if that's a sensibility thing (I didn't like the MASH movie at all either) since I didn't grow up in the era, but yeah, movie was a no-go.

            2. I fear I may have the same setup, now that you mention Yahoo...Still seems to work with Netflix and Amazon, though. We use a Roku stick for Disney+.

              1. Yeah, I think Netflix and Amazon get updated through the firmware and we haven't had any issues with them, but we usually access them through Xfinity. We could use a new blu-ray player for the basement, so we might go that route to get Hulu back. Or we might just cancel Hulu, I don't know. I'm disinclined to support a service that leaves so many customers out in the cold.

                1. There may be corners of the internet that have created custom ROMs for this TV to get around this problem.

    2. Felt your pain recently. Was with a friend who has an old (circa 2005) iMac. They wanted to stream Disney+ for their kids but the most recent version of OS X that they are eligible for doesn’t support modern browsers. So they are up a creek, which seems crappy given that the display would go on chugging along for ages.

      I’m also pretty perturbed that my circa 2009 iPad no longer supports Netflix. The hardware is more than capable of showing HD content—every original use case for that iPad still works just fine, but “progress” means no more support.

      1. My 2013 Galaxy Tab tablet is slowly dropping off the supported devices for a lot of apps. First it was WatchESPN and ABC, then NBCSports. Not sure how much longer it'll be what I consider "fully functional" w/r/t how it used to be.

        I've been toying around with building a NAS to centralize all my various streaming apps and network devices (ie my Plex server)

      2. Unfortunate because if that was a circa 2006-2007 iMac, it possibly could still work. Linux probably still works on that system, but you wouldn't be able to stream anything then. It'd be usable as a display however.

  5. Starting when we were on vacation, Runner daughter raided our "garage sale pile" in the basement and began listing stuff on Facebook marketplace. So far she's made tens of dollars, and we've reduced our clutter quite a bit. While she's been doing most of the heavy lifting, it hasn't been too big of a hassle. Anything left over come the holidays is getting a free ride to Goodwill. Win-win-win.

    1. We’ve been on a eBay selling kick lately. Made a few bones cleaning out stuff we didn’t need to purchase in the first place so that we can spend those bones on stuff we don’t need now. Win win lose.

    1. Another $300,000 raise to $1.6 million. He was projected for another $300,000 above that at $1.9 million.

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